Systems for access control are used, for example, for cable cars and ski lifts. In addition to single trip tickets, daily, weekly and seasonal passes are issued, especially for winter sports, and often for a complex of cable cars and ski lifts throughout an entire region. Considerable price reductions are granted for the longer-term passes compared to the price for individual trips, but the former are not transferable to other persons.
The unauthorized transfer of longer-term tickets is, however, a widespread practice. It often happens, for example, that a skier who has bought a ticket early in the morning discontinues skiing around midday and then gives the card to a friend, or in some cases even to a stranger in the parking lot. Lift operators incur considerable financial losses as a result of this practice. In order to prevent such unauthorized transfers, an identification photo of the buyer is therefore taken and affixed to the ticket when it is purchased, so that ticket collectors can compare the photo on the ticket with the person who is using it. However, processing the photos and affixing them to the tickets is costly and time-consuming, with the result that this is only practical for higher-value tickets, such as weekly or seasonal passes.
Another well-known system is the technique of storing a digitized image of the ticket purchaser in a database, along with identification data for the particular ticket, and installing a device with a display screen at the point of access. The image of the ticket holder is transmitted from the database and displayed on the screen once the identification data for the ticket has been entered by the ticket collector. This allows the control personnel to compare the user with the image on the screen. However, this method of checking is also time-consuming and is considered a serious inconvenience by legitimate ticket holders, so that this access control method can only be implemented in exceptional cases.
Automatic face recognition via photo processing is scarcely applicable for access control systems, and not at all practical for winter sports because of the caps, headbands, goggles, sunglasses, scarves and the like, which cover the face of the skier.
The purpose of the invention is to provide a simple, effective system for controlling non-transferable data carriers for access authorization without unduly inconveniencing access users.